SEMINOLE COUNTY, FL (RNN) - George Zimmerman, the man charged with the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, has filed a lawsuit against NBC Universal, claiming the network portrayed him as "a racist and a predatory villain" in the wake of the shooting.

The suit, filed in Seminole County, FL, claims "NBC saw the death of Trayvon Martin not as a tragedy but as an opportunity to increase ratings" and, in their coverage, created a "false and defamatory misimpression" of Zimmerman.

In a news report, NBC edited Zimmerman's 911 call to make it sound like he said to a dispatcher, "This guy [Martin] looks like he's up to no good. He looks black."

The actual exchange with a 911 operator went as follows:

Zimmerman: This guy looks like he's up to no good, like he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's walking around, looking about.

911 Operator: OK, this guy, is he white, black or Hispanic?

Zimmerman: He looks black.

The suit cites four other instances where the call was allegedly doctored and aired and accuses the network of "manipulating Zimmerman's own words, splicing together disparate parts of the recording to create the illusion of statements that Zimmerman never actually made."

NBC fired three people and issued an apology after an internal investigation into the edit, saying "it became evident that there was an error made in the production process that we deeply regret. We will be taking the necessary steps to prevent this from happening in the future and apologize to our viewers."

The suit names two terminated employees, plus a reporter still employed at NBC.

In response to the suit, a spokesperson for NBC told the Associated Press, "There was no intent to portray Mr. Zimmerman unfairly. We intend to vigorously defend our position in court."

The suit doesn't specify damages sought.

Zimmerman faces second degree murder charges in the death of 17-year-old Martin.

In February, Zimmerman called police to report a suspicious person - Martin, who was unarmed - walking through his gated Florida neighborhood.

The two reportedly got into a scuffle, and Zimmerman shot him at close range.

Martin supporters say he, as a black teenager, was the victim of racial profiling by an overzealous neighborhood watch captain.

Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, claims he was acting in self defense, citing Florida's Stand Your Ground law which allows someone to use deadly force if they feel their life is in danger.

When will people quit trusting NBC news? I stopped trusting them when I remember watching this report about GM trucks and then GM found out that NBC put explosives in the gas tanks:

Dateline NBC aired an investigative report on Tuesday, November 17, 1992, titled “Waiting to Explode”. The 60 minute program was about General Motors' Rounded-Line Chevrolet C/K-Series pickup trucks allegedly exploding upon impact during accidents due to the poor design of fuel tanks. Dateline's film showed a sample of a low speed accident with the fuel tank exploding. In reality, Dateline NBC producers had rigged the truck’s fuel tank with remotely controlled model rocket engines to initiate the explosion. The program did not disclose the fact that the accident was staged. GM hired Failure Analysis Associates (FaAA, now Exponent) whose investigators studied the film, and discovered that smoke actually came out of the fuel tank six frames before impact. Acting on a tip from someone involved in the Dateline crash test, FaAA investigators searched through 22 junkyards in Indiana before finding the charred wreckage of the GM pickups.[7][8] It was also later revealed that the Dateline report had been dishonest about the fuel tanks rupturing and the alleged 30 mph speed at which the collision was conducted. The actual speed was found to be higher, around 40 mph, and after x-ray examination of the fuel tanks from the C/K pickups used in the televised collision, it was found that they had not ruptured and were intact.[9][10] GM subsequently filed an anti-defamation/libel lawsuit against NBC after conducting an extensive investigation. On Monday, February 8, 1993, GM conducted a highly publicized point-by-point rebuttal in the Product Exhibit Hall of the General Motors Building in Detroit that lasted nearly two hours after announcing the lawsuit.[11] The lawsuit was settled the same week by NBC, and Jane Pauley read a 3 minute 30 second on-air apology to viewers.

The General Motors lawsuit and subsequent settlement was arguably the most devastating blow for NBC in a series of reputation damaging incidents during the 1990s and early 2000s. Within NBC, Michael Gartner, who resigned shortly after the incident, was the source for much of the blame. Then-NBC News President Reuven Frank stated Gartner was hired in 1988, despite no TV news background, in an attempt to satisfy parent-company General Electric by replacing current journalists with cheaper, less experienced reporters and producers.[12]

The following Dateline NBC producers were dismissed: Jeff Diamond, executive producer; David Rummel, senior producer; and Robert Read, producer of the report on the pickups. Michele Gillen, the reporter involved in the segment, was transferred to Miami station WTVJ. Michael G. Gartner, president of the news division, resigned under pressure.

The judge absolutely comes across as at the very least (and certainly more in my opinion) unprofessional and unbecoming of a judge. That being said, how the hell do they tie that to Obama again? I mean, it's like they're taking a legitimate problem and trying as hard as they can to make a farce of it. Is that Alex Jones' thing or something?

...I prefer a man who will burn the flag and then wrap himself in the Constitution to a man who will burn the Constitution and then wrap himself in the flag.

To the people who are threatening to riot and do violence and harm to innocent people and property if their mob rule and social justice demands are not met based on their version of edited lies, give it up.

Martin was a thug and Zimmerman a stand up law abiding citizen just trying to protect his neighborhood that was being completely devastated by a rash of burglaries. It's true that if Zimmerman did not get out of his car, Martin would still be alive. But that's only as true as if Martin was not suspended from school for having drugs in school and didn't get kicked out of his moms house and have to go stay with his dad, he would still be alive. It would also be true that Martin would still be alive if he wasn't high on marijuana to comprehend the situation that he was a stranger who did not live in that neighborhood. If he had only said "I'm staying with my father, Mr. Martin" he would still be alive. perhaps if Zimmerman had stated that he was a neighborhood watchman, Martin would have volunteered the information and dealt with the situation much more rationally and less aggressively. If all the suspects and witness accounts had been of short fat white males plaguing the neighborhood and committing a constant stream of burlgaries and robberies and all kinds of crime, Martin would also still be alive, since people in that community would have been looking/"profiling " for short fat white males. None of that has anything to do with it though.

All that matters is the dispatcher told Zimmerman "we don't need you to do that" when asked if Zimmerman was following Martin, to which Zimmerman COMPLIED "OKAY." Then Trayvon jumped Zimmerman and used his MMA training and 8 inch height and 14 inch reach advantage to almost beat Zimmerman to death. Zimmerman did the right thing waiting to pull out his gun until the last moment, until it was clear there were no other choices, until it was clear he was having his head bashed into the concrete.

The judge absolutely comes across as at the very least (and certainly more in my opinion) unprofessional and unbecoming of a judge. That being said, how the hell do they tie that to Obama again? I mean, it's like they're taking a legitimate problem and trying as hard as they can to make a farce of it. Is that Alex Jones' thing or something?

I'm not tying it to Obama. The article also fails to make that connection, imo.

Though his administration certainly has their hands dirty in this whole mess.

The judge absolutely comes across as at the very least (and certainly more in my opinion) unprofessional and unbecoming of a judge. That being said, how the hell do they tie that to Obama again? I mean, it's like they're taking a legitimate problem and trying as hard as they can to make a farce of it. Is that Alex Jones' thing or something?

I'm not tying it to Obama. The article also fails to make that connection, imo.

Though his administration certainly has their hands dirty in this whole mess.

I believe he is referring to Eric Holder's involvement. And there is also the issue of the mayor and lawyers from the DOJ pressuring the police chief into charging Zimmerman.

But the political involvement doesn't go any further than opportunism by the President and the Democrats. And it was brilliant and it worked. Somewhere in this thread I posted the # of "Trayvon supporters" who were then herded from the rally and transformed into a registered voter. I believe it was around 250,000.

The judge absolutely comes across as at the very least (and certainly more in my opinion) unprofessional and unbecoming of a judge. That being said, how the hell do they tie that to Obama again? I mean, it's like they're taking a legitimate problem and trying as hard as they can to make a farce of it. Is that Alex Jones' thing or something?

I'm not tying it to Obama.

Yeah, I didn't mean to blame you...that's why I tried to point out that it was an Alex Jones thing. Sorry about that.

...I prefer a man who will burn the flag and then wrap himself in the Constitution to a man who will burn the Constitution and then wrap himself in the flag.

Before people go all nuts about the injustice of the verdict, they should understand the instructions given to the jury in the case of manslaughter. The 2nd degree murder charge was total BS and that should be painfully obvious by now given the facts. Manslaughter was the only really possible charge that could have had had a chance to stick. The instructions, this was included-

"George Zimmerman cannot be guilty of manslaughter by committing a merely negligent act or if the killing was either justifiable or excusable homicide,"

You should understand that phrase "a merely negligent act".Sure, Zimmerman probably shouldn't have gotten out of his car. Sure the whole situation could have been avoided.

But Zimmerman wasn't trespassing, he was on a public street and was completely lawful for him to be there. Once he started getting his ass kicked, rather badly, he defended himself.

And also to note, the Stand your Ground law had no bearing on this case. It was a case of simple self defense or not. Upon viewing all the evidence, the jury found him not guilty. It's probably a fair decision. But let the riots begin for those who care not about the law or evidence. Those who say that Zimmerman should have been convicted because he got out of his truck, or was carrying a gun, they should read those instructions again. He couldn't be convicted of manslaughter because of "a merely negligent act" and understand that that reasoning falls right into the intent of the instructions the jury had to follow.

You can't convict someone of manslaughter just because they did something stupid that in hindsight seems rather dumb. For self defense the jury just has to be sure that Zimmerman wasn't actually doing anything illegal (he wasn't) and that he had a genuine fear for his safety (he did) which led him to defend himself.

I'm glad this is finally over. And NBC is going to be paying Zimmerman some $'s for the BS they did. It'll be an out of court settlement in the end I'd bet. What Zimmerman is going to do now though, moving forward, isn't going to be very pleasant most likely. He can't be sent to jail for being stupid but life has ways of punishing stupidity none the less. Best of luck to him. He'll need it.....

Just as I said would happen the day this whole debacle occurred. Is anyone really surprised by this verdict? The state has the burden of proof and failed to prove Zimmerman guilty beyond any reasonable doubt on the evidence presented, period!! This case was brought to justice simply due to political purposes, nothing more. Don't hate Zimmerman, hate Florida law.

An employee of the Florida State Attorney's Office who testified that prosecutors withheld evidence from George Zimmerman's defense team has been fired.Ben Kruidbos had been on paid administrative leave since May 28 from his job as director of information technology for the State Attorney's Office.A spokeswoman for Fourth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Angela Corey said Kruidbos was no longer an employee of the office.

Kruidbos said that, when he printed a 900-page Florida Department of Law Enforcement report from Martin's cell phone in late 2012 or early 2013, he noticed information was missing. Kruidbos said he generated a report that was more than three times the size of the one that had been handed over. For example, Kruidbos said that 2,958 photos were in the report given to the defense but that his report contained 4,275 photos. Kruidbos also said that he has been told to not put specific case-identifying information into internal e-mails. Through his attorney, Wesley White, Kruidbos informed Zimmerman's defense team that the information existed.

Well, now he's free to live in hiding. Sadly, I'm rather serious...how does one go about living their life after this sort of exposure?

For what it's worth, this seems to me like it was probably the right verdict. Despite the fact that I consider Zimmerman to be SIGNIFICANTLY responsible for the incident, the burden of proof for the charge simply wasn't there. I am glad that it seems to have not been a political decision.

Plus it looks like the prosecutors were doing things that were at the least unseemly, as far as providing information to the defense.

That being said, how is the following justice in comparison (I hate to mention the obvious difference):

An employee of the Florida State Attorney's Office who testified that prosecutors withheld evidence from George Zimmerman's defense team has been fired.Ben Kruidbos had been on paid administrative leave since May 28 from his job as director of information technology for the State Attorney's Office.A spokeswoman for Fourth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Angela Corey said Kruidbos was no longer an employee of the office.

Kruidbos said that, when he printed a 900-page Florida Department of Law Enforcement report from Martin's cell phone in late 2012 or early 2013, he noticed information was missing. Kruidbos said he generated a report that was more than three times the size of the one that had been handed over. For example, Kruidbos said that 2,958 photos were in the report given to the defense but that his report contained 4,275 photos. Kruidbos also said that he has been told to not put specific case-identifying information into internal e-mails. Through his attorney, Wesley White, Kruidbos informed Zimmerman's defense team that the information existed.

Woodruff wrote:Well, now he's free to live in hiding. Sadly, I'm rather serious...how does one go about living their life after this sort of exposure?

For what it's worth, this seems to me like it was probably the right verdict. Despite the fact that I consider Zimmerman to be SIGNIFICANTLY responsible for the incident, the burden of proof for the charge simply wasn't there. I am glad that it seems to have not been a political decision.

Plus it looks like the prosecutors were doing things that were at the least unseemly, as far as providing information to the defense.

That being said, how is the following justice in comparison (I hate to mention the obvious difference):